The Power of Voice Biometrics

We don’t often highlight the works of our competitors. However, Asem Othman from Veridium recently wrote a blog article that does a nice job of explaining voice biometric technology, and its advantages and disadvantages. And while the VBG website covers the same basic information in one way or another, it is important to show the messaging consistency that is occurring across different voice biometric vendors. Click here to read the complete blog post.

Asem mentioned several things that are worth highlighting:

First, voice biometrics are both physiological (reflects shape of your month, throat, larynx, nasal cavity, etc.) and behavioral (changes occur due to language, education, geographic location, etc.). Some biometrics, like fingerprints and retinal scans are purely physiological, while other biometrics such as gait analysis and keystroke analysis are purely behavioral. Voice biometrics are truly unique in this regard, and newer deep learning techniques are helping us to capture ALL the benefits of speech analysis.

Second, it is important to note the potential for channel or device “mismatch” in voice biometric systems. As an example, enrolling on a landline and subsequently verifying with your Skype headset can impact the performance of certain systems, particularly if you have not gathered representative speech and created models to handle these scenarios.

As a general rule, it is certainly always best to have device consistency if possible. However, VBG understands that end users should not have to worry about what device they are using – the technology should "just work”. Thus, VBG continues to refine our device detection and normalization routines to help provide better results, regardless of what device is being used.

And finally, the point was made that your voice changes over time due to aging, or due to medical conditions, emotional state, and other factors. This is true. Age-related changes happen over longer periods of time, so we use “model adaptation” to update the voiceprint with recent (validated) verify samples. And, well-adapted voiceprints are also good at resolving short-term issues, such as colds or stress.